The Fredösphere

I write computer programs in my day job, which allows me to listen to music on headphones some of the time while I weave my tangled webs of logic.  Lately I find myself returning repeatedly to the Holst Singers' rendition of Schnittke's Choir Concerto.

I consider myself a fan of Schnittke but I've come to realize his reputation does not jive with the kind of music in the Concerto.  Really, I know almost nothing about the rest of his work.  I've listened to a recording (it must have been this by Kronos) of some of his string quartets, but the only memorable part was something lifted from ... the Choir Concerto!

The piece is quite long and calls for extensive divisi in order to achieve occasional thick tone clusters.  Beyond that, I wonder if choirs allow themselves to be intimidated by the work.  In both recordings  I've heard, the sound seems a little too tightly wound than is called for.  This results in soprano sections with a suicidal urge to sing the high notes sharp.  Madness.  (But I don't remember that problem in the one live performance I've heard, by the Swedish Radio Choir under Eric Ericson.)

Big pieces like the Choir Concerto, or the monolithic Miserere by Gorecki, don't get performed much.  What groups exist that can?  Take a city like Ann Arbor, with a rich choral culture.  The one choir big enough for these pieces, the Choral Union, sticks to works for choir and orchestra.  I don't recall ever hearing of any a cappella work they have ever sung.  It's certainly not the case they shy away from difficult music (and their director, Jerry Blackstone, is world class).  They just don't sing pieces without orchestra.  Occasionally a university choir might take the work on, but they don't have the mature voices you need for an optimal performance.  My guess is, the entire state of Michigan has not one choir that both can and should sing the Choir Concerto.